Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Though it was never mention during theWorldwide Developers Conference ( WWDC ) 2024keynote , Apple will add a very cool new feature to itsAirPlaystreaming engineering science in the gloaming : support forspatial sound .
As blob byWhat Hi - Fi , the addition of spatial sound to AirPlay was much a footnote , seem at the very conclusion of the Apple’spress releasedetailing its tvOS 18 - based menage amusement enhancement .
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The news could be a boastful slew for anyone who wants to hear spacial sound recording contentedness , likeDolby Atmos Music , from a compatible wireless speaker . Though it may seem counterintuitive , even though AirPlay currently lets you pour any audio from an iPhone , iPad , or Mac to an AirPlay - enabled speaker , there are still limitation . For illustration , AirPlay only supports up to atomic number 48 - quality , 16 - bit/44.1kHz lossless audio — it does n’t act with any hi - reticuloendothelial system audio sampling charge per unit or bit deepness . And if you endeavor to pelt Dolby Atmos , say , from Apple Music — even if you stream it to a Dolby Atmos utterer like theSonos earned run average 300 — that audio will be down - mixed to stereo before it ever leaves your Apple gimmick .
This restriction of AirPlay has meant that the only manner to get spatial audio frequency to a standalone loudspeaker is directly from the root . In other language , Sonos must get at Dolby Atmos stream right away from Apple Music in order for the Sonos Era 300 ( or Sonos Arc , or Sonos Beam Gen 2 ) to dally it aright . The same is true for any other Dolby Atmos - capable speaker .
This can make a challenge for builder of spatial audio speakers . Unless they build up a associate app , and supply accompaniment for direct cyclosis from every music servicing that furnish Dolby Atmos subject matter , there ’s almost no reliable way to get the speaker to recreate Dolby Atmos as it should fathom .
With the addition of spatial audio compatibility to AirPlay , any Dolby Atmos speaker that works with AirPlay will be capable to incur Atmos wirelessly from any Apple machine — regardless of the streaming app in employment .
The impact on the audio world could be substantial . Audio companies that have been protest the idea of form a Dolby Atmos speaker now have a major barricade out of their way . And as the loudspeaker ecosystem responds with more Atmos - capable products , recording creative person and music streaming services will respond with more and more spatial audio content .
Unfortunately , since AirPlay remains an Apple gimmick undivided , we still involve a solution for Android and Windows . supply spacial audio recording keep toChromecastwould address part of this problem . A much better ( and more general ) solution would be for the entire industry to throw its weight behindMatter Casting , a receptive - source choice to both AirPlay and Chromecast . Once Matter Casting works with spatial audio , we ’ll be capable to stream any audio from any gadget to any other gadget .
